What do you think?
Rate this book
Jawbone Lake
From the author of Electricity and Forgetting Zoë , comes a thought-provoking, beautifully written and taut thriller.
Ravenstor, the Peak District. The early hours of New Year's Day. A young woman stands on the shore of a frozen lake and watches a Land Rover crash off a bridge and through the ice. Two hundred miles away, a young man is woken by a devastating telephone call. The accident, and what it brings to the surface, will change both of their lives forever.
The driver of the Land Rover was CJ Arms, a successful local businessman and pillar of the small community. The young man is his son, Joe, who returns from London to comfort his mother and to search for clues as to the causes of the crash. What he finds will take him from the desolate tors of the Peaks to the foothills of southern Spain, and to a group of ex-pats from CJ's past with many secrets to hide.
The woman on the lakeshore is Rabbit, a factory-worker struggling to recover from the sudden death of her son. Pursued by an unknown figure, Rabbit is spun from a cycle of grief and longing into one of fear. Seeking shelter at work, Rabbit finds that she can't hide for long. What Rabbit saw that night will draw her, and Joe, towards a shocking act of violence.
Jawbone Lake is both a heart-stopping literary thriller, and a moving meditation on family, generational divide and the dangers of living a double life. Alive with the lyrical evocation of landscape that is Robinson's forte, it is an astonishing new work of fiction from one of our finest writers.
Ravenstor, the Peak District. The early hours of New Year's Day. A young woman stands on the shore of a frozen lake and watches a Land Rover crash off a bridge and through the ice. Two hundred miles away, a young man is woken by a devastating telephone call. The accident, and what it brings to the surface, will change both of their lives forever.
The driver of the Land Rover was CJ Arms, a successful local businessman and pillar of the small community. The young man is his son, Joe, who returns from London to comfort his mother and to search for clues as to the causes of the crash. What he finds will take him from the desolate tors of the Peaks to the foothills of southern Spain, and to a group of ex-pats from CJ's past with many secrets to hide.
The woman on the lakeshore is Rabbit, a factory-worker struggling to recover from the sudden death of her son. Pursued by an unknown figure, Rabbit is spun from a cycle of grief and longing into one of fear. Seeking shelter at work, Rabbit finds that she can't hide for long. What Rabbit saw that night will draw her, and Joe, towards a shocking act of violence.
Jawbone Lake is both a heart-stopping literary thriller, and a moving meditation on family, generational divide and the dangers of living a double life. Alive with the lyrical evocation of landscape that is Robinson's forte, it is an astonishing new work of fiction from one of our finest writers.
- GenresCrime
320 pages, Paperback
First published September 5, 2013
3 people are currently reading
114 people want to read
About the author
Ray Robinson
6 books21 followersRobinson first won attention in 2006 with his debut novel, Electricity. It was shortlisted for both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Authors' Club First Novel Award. The film adaptation of Electricity, starring Agyness Deyn, Tom Georgeson, and Christian Cooke, made its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival 2014, and won Best Screenplay at the National Film Awards 2015.
Robinson's other novels are The Man Without (2008), Forgetting Zoe (2010), and Jawbone Lake (2014).
Forgetting Zoe was a winner of the inaugural Jerwood Fiction Uncovered prize and was the Observer's 'Thriller of the Month'. Robinson was hailed as 'among the most impressive voices of Britain's younger generation' by the Irish Times, and the Irish Independent called Jawbone Lake 'a literary thriller of the highest order'.
Robinson is a post-graduate of Lancaster University, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in Creative Writing in 2006, and is a Mentor for The Literary Consultancy. He has appeared at literary festivals around the world, including La Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara, Mexico, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Robinson is currently working on a feature-length screenplay, and a novel for teenagers.
Robinson's other novels are The Man Without (2008), Forgetting Zoe (2010), and Jawbone Lake (2014).
Forgetting Zoe was a winner of the inaugural Jerwood Fiction Uncovered prize and was the Observer's 'Thriller of the Month'. Robinson was hailed as 'among the most impressive voices of Britain's younger generation' by the Irish Times, and the Irish Independent called Jawbone Lake 'a literary thriller of the highest order'.
Robinson is a post-graduate of Lancaster University, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in Creative Writing in 2006, and is a Mentor for The Literary Consultancy. He has appeared at literary festivals around the world, including La Feria Internacional del Libro de Guadalajara, Mexico, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Robinson is currently working on a feature-length screenplay, and a novel for teenagers.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 9, 2014
From the very first visually striking scene of Jawbone Lake I became totally absorbed in this emotive and beautifully rendered novel, and in the lives of Joe, a young man facing life after the disappearance of his father CJ, and Rabbit, a local young woman, recovering from the death of her son. Their lives become inextricably linked as the events leading up to CJ’s death impact on both of them: Rabbit as a witness to the death, and Joe discovering many aspects of his father’s life, previously unknown to him.
With both Joe and Rabbit being unstintingly empathetic characters, there is a natural connection with them on the part of the reader, which ensures that your attention is fully engaged with them, and as the danger increases for them both, this engagement with them heightens even further. There is a wonderful unfurling and organic growth of their characters, in particular the formerly timid and downtrodden Rabbit, as Joe embarks on a personal mission to discover more of his father’s character and shady activities, that take him on a journey through his father’s life, from his formative years in Hastings to his other life in Andalusia.
Along with the assured development and linkage of Rabbit and Joe’s characters, underscored with some powerfully affecting scenes between the two, Robinson’s evocation of place is stunning. Gravitating between three entirely different locales, both geographically and visually, each location is colourfully painted in the reader’s minds with a superb evocation of the sights, sounds and atmosphere that Joe experiences in his travels, and the desolate beauty of Ravenstor to which he initially returns, as the scene of his father’s disappearance.
I would hesitate to label Jawbone Lake as a traditional thriller as although exhibiting signs of the genre, the writing is much more fixed in my mind as having a more ‘literary’ feel- I would easily compare it to a writer such as Jim Crace in the rendition of its deep rooted emotional themes, and its pitch perfect evocation of place. A beautiful and affecting read.
With both Joe and Rabbit being unstintingly empathetic characters, there is a natural connection with them on the part of the reader, which ensures that your attention is fully engaged with them, and as the danger increases for them both, this engagement with them heightens even further. There is a wonderful unfurling and organic growth of their characters, in particular the formerly timid and downtrodden Rabbit, as Joe embarks on a personal mission to discover more of his father’s character and shady activities, that take him on a journey through his father’s life, from his formative years in Hastings to his other life in Andalusia.
Along with the assured development and linkage of Rabbit and Joe’s characters, underscored with some powerfully affecting scenes between the two, Robinson’s evocation of place is stunning. Gravitating between three entirely different locales, both geographically and visually, each location is colourfully painted in the reader’s minds with a superb evocation of the sights, sounds and atmosphere that Joe experiences in his travels, and the desolate beauty of Ravenstor to which he initially returns, as the scene of his father’s disappearance.
I would hesitate to label Jawbone Lake as a traditional thriller as although exhibiting signs of the genre, the writing is much more fixed in my mind as having a more ‘literary’ feel- I would easily compare it to a writer such as Jim Crace in the rendition of its deep rooted emotional themes, and its pitch perfect evocation of place. A beautiful and affecting read.
January 16, 2014
Do we ever REALLY know those we love and admire? Ray Robinson’s, Jawbone Lake takes us on a mysterious and thrilling journey into the heart of family secrets, and those who keep them. Joe Arms, a likable and educated man, has escaped the confines of his small town life. When his father, CJ, turns up missing, Joe’s life is shattered. He returns home to comfort his mother while hoping to find answers, but discovering instead more mystery surrounding his father’s life and death. As he meticulously pieces things together, he has no clue a young woman named Rabbit, from his home town, has witnessed his father’s vehicle plunge into the frozen Jawbone Lake. He doesn’t know it was her that made an anonymous call to police. And he certainly doesn’t realize the danger she is in.
But Rabbit knows.
The man responsible for CJ’s death spotted her on the lake edge watching, and is following her, so Rabbit keeps her own secrets. She wants to come forward to the police and tell them what she witnessed, but is afraid for her life. As Joe unravels more devastating secrets regarding his father’s shady dealings, Rabbit clings to her secret. A dangerous game ensues, bringing the story to a tense, moving and unforgettable conclusion.
Once again Ray Robinson has given us a novel that creeps under the skin and goes straight to the heart of loss and hope.
But Rabbit knows.
The man responsible for CJ’s death spotted her on the lake edge watching, and is following her, so Rabbit keeps her own secrets. She wants to come forward to the police and tell them what she witnessed, but is afraid for her life. As Joe unravels more devastating secrets regarding his father’s shady dealings, Rabbit clings to her secret. A dangerous game ensues, bringing the story to a tense, moving and unforgettable conclusion.
Once again Ray Robinson has given us a novel that creeps under the skin and goes straight to the heart of loss and hope.
November 9, 2022
This relatively short novel follows the consequences of, in the opening chapter, a man in an apparent accident, his car plunging off a bridge in Derbyshire into a frozen lake. The adult son tries to piece together what happened, and a local woman who witnessed the incident struggling to piece together what she saw.
The writing, as always with Ray Robinson, a strength in terms of the description of character and creating an atmosphere. In truth the ridiculous cover image showing a lake among mountains (nothing like the Peak District setting) meant the description of place had to work twice as hard. There was some stark beauty in the writing and the tension within the main characters.
Alas though the plot didn’t really work for me. It all felt a bit hackneyed and clichéd - running around solving a mystery which in the end basically came to a head of its own accord. For all that I liked much of the content, it in the end felt like the setting and characters were misused in the plot which was used. So a three and a half, probably.
The writing, as always with Ray Robinson, a strength in terms of the description of character and creating an atmosphere. In truth the ridiculous cover image showing a lake among mountains (nothing like the Peak District setting) meant the description of place had to work twice as hard. There was some stark beauty in the writing and the tension within the main characters.
Alas though the plot didn’t really work for me. It all felt a bit hackneyed and clichéd - running around solving a mystery which in the end basically came to a head of its own accord. For all that I liked much of the content, it in the end felt like the setting and characters were misused in the plot which was used. So a three and a half, probably.
August 10, 2014
JAWBONE LAKE by Ray Robinson
A car crashes through a bridge and falls through the ice of Jawbone Lake. A woman standing in the dark in the snow at the side of the lake witnesses what happens and runs as a man starts chasing her. Set in the Peak District in Derbyshire, Jawbone Lake a story of lives changed forever when the crash unearths an unknown mysterious life of the respected business man CJ. He leaves behind his father Bill, wife Eileen and son Joe, who are left to figure out who CJ really was. Joe’s search for the truth about his father takes him to Spain, and Hastings, finding another life that CJ lived. The woman who witnessed the crash, Rabbit, has her own grief to deal with is caught on the fringes of the mystery by someone who is pursuing her.
At the centre of the story is Lake Jawbone being carefully woven into the book with death; the death of a village that lay underneath, a man, and the ashes of a baby.
As their lives unravel Ray Robinson has a great way of bringing the reader into the intimacies of each of them. The characters and their actions are very plausible making the book a good read. I like the way that there are links throughout the book encompassing both sides of the hidden underworld to the everyday life of the characters. I love how the descriptions of the changing scenery throughout the seasons convey a respect for the countryside. To me this cleverly written book is both subtle in its story and careful in its language. I particularly like the line “Every remark she made seemed to have a depth to it, another level of inference. Scribbled notes in the margins, whisperings just out of earshot”
A book set in the UK is always special to me. It means I may have travelled the area, can understand the landscape, the localism, and the people. This is such a great book to read to get a real sense of being in the Peak District. This mystery thriller is so beautifully written by someone who understands the art of literature completely.
I think I would like to have known more about CJ’s relationship with the girl in Andalusia although I am not sure that it would have added to the story. However, leaving out much details of CJ’s hidden life gave me a sense of the shock his family was feeling about a man they never really knew. It is simply a curiosity I had reading it because I was unsure of how important their relationship is in the story.
I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it as an excellent read. I would quite like to read a book written from aspect of CJ’s secret life as a follow up!
My thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review
A car crashes through a bridge and falls through the ice of Jawbone Lake. A woman standing in the dark in the snow at the side of the lake witnesses what happens and runs as a man starts chasing her. Set in the Peak District in Derbyshire, Jawbone Lake a story of lives changed forever when the crash unearths an unknown mysterious life of the respected business man CJ. He leaves behind his father Bill, wife Eileen and son Joe, who are left to figure out who CJ really was. Joe’s search for the truth about his father takes him to Spain, and Hastings, finding another life that CJ lived. The woman who witnessed the crash, Rabbit, has her own grief to deal with is caught on the fringes of the mystery by someone who is pursuing her.
At the centre of the story is Lake Jawbone being carefully woven into the book with death; the death of a village that lay underneath, a man, and the ashes of a baby.
As their lives unravel Ray Robinson has a great way of bringing the reader into the intimacies of each of them. The characters and their actions are very plausible making the book a good read. I like the way that there are links throughout the book encompassing both sides of the hidden underworld to the everyday life of the characters. I love how the descriptions of the changing scenery throughout the seasons convey a respect for the countryside. To me this cleverly written book is both subtle in its story and careful in its language. I particularly like the line “Every remark she made seemed to have a depth to it, another level of inference. Scribbled notes in the margins, whisperings just out of earshot”
A book set in the UK is always special to me. It means I may have travelled the area, can understand the landscape, the localism, and the people. This is such a great book to read to get a real sense of being in the Peak District. This mystery thriller is so beautifully written by someone who understands the art of literature completely.
I think I would like to have known more about CJ’s relationship with the girl in Andalusia although I am not sure that it would have added to the story. However, leaving out much details of CJ’s hidden life gave me a sense of the shock his family was feeling about a man they never really knew. It is simply a curiosity I had reading it because I was unsure of how important their relationship is in the story.
I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it as an excellent read. I would quite like to read a book written from aspect of CJ’s secret life as a follow up!
My thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review
August 31, 2014
Atmospheric thriller set in the Derbyshire Peak District (so has local interest for me). One New Years Eve, a young woman standing on the shore of a reservoir late at night hears shots and then witnesses a car plunge into the water. The car belongs to local businessman CJ Arms and, while the police and family try to make sense of what has happened, the witness keeps quiet about what she heard. But by doing so she puts herself in danger as she is stalked by the perpetrator. Meanwhile, CJ's son travels to Spain to find out what secrets his father was keeping from the family - and doesn't like what he finds. Superbly-written story, great characters and setting. 8.5/10.
January 25, 2015
A novel with a murder at its centre which does not, somehow, seem to be a crime story, and with far more loose ends than solutions, more unexplained mysteries.
Quiet explorations of how people react, to those mysteries, to each other, within the already-complex scope of their own lives - so quiet that 'thriller' does not seem altogether applicable - and for the most part convincing and beautifully-told.
Certainly one to re-read, because the who-done-it is not its greatest part.
Quiet explorations of how people react, to those mysteries, to each other, within the already-complex scope of their own lives - so quiet that 'thriller' does not seem altogether applicable - and for the most part convincing and beautifully-told.
Certainly one to re-read, because the who-done-it is not its greatest part.
May 30, 2015
Taut. Claustrophobic. Great sense of landscape and place, and great use of the geographic setting to imply the emotional state of the characters. Thin plot though. And I don't see the point of the last fifth of the book at all.
May 28, 2014
A touching meditation on the uneasy fact of life that some things can never be fully known or recovered, no matter how long searched for, or how much longed for, Jawbone Lake is a murder mystery with heart.
Set in the beautifully moody landscape of the Derbyshire Peak District, in a village community huddled against gossip, boredom and resentment, the story centres on the mysterious disappearance of C.J. Arms; charismatic business owner, part-time ex-pat, and apparent devoted family man.
One New Year’s Eve, CJ’s car veers off the road, crashing through a bridge into Jawbone Lake. The incident is assumed to be a death, despite the fact that a body is not found, and at first the crash is presumed an accident. But Rabbit, a young woman with secrets of her own who was out walking by the lake that night, was there to witness that things were not as the police presume.
Pursued by a man in a mysterious Mercedes, the things that Rabbit saw that night begin to haunt her, despite her pledges to forget the whole thing, change her appearance, and keep a low profile. But forces conspire to ensure that she can’t move on, and handsome Joe Arms, C.J.’s bereft son, has questions of his own.
Like all of Robinson’s novels, Jawbone Lake is filled with beautiful prose and vivid imagery. The valley “held the darkness like a coffin.” A train “rattled over the railway bridge, unzipping the landscape.” Characters are precisely drawn too. Rabbit’s anxiety is conveyed not simply through repeated references to fear itself but through the rituals she enacts to distract herself, “breaking her life into units of time”, making OCD-like mental arithmetic out of the most mundane of daily tasks. The relationship between Rabbit and her best friend Frankie is also tenderly portrayed, and like other friendships in Robinson’s novels, is a meditation on the power of non-blood ties between lost children.
A mile long, half a mile wide and sixty metres deep, Jawbone Lake is a flooded valley which holds the secrets of a drowned village beneath it; important not only to the search and the book’s plot, but to the symbolism of a novel that concerns itself with parallel lives and the question of how well we really know the people we love.
As if to underline this thematic preoccupation, Jawbone Lake leaves a number of questions unanswered; the book’s dramatic denouement spreading at its end like water ripples. One gets the impression Robinson wants the reader to feel some of the uncertainty and lingering questions that the characters do; those inhabitants of the valley that must live on with their doubts. As in all of Robinson’s fiction, loss and trauma are key calling cards but equally, all is never hopeless.
Set in the beautifully moody landscape of the Derbyshire Peak District, in a village community huddled against gossip, boredom and resentment, the story centres on the mysterious disappearance of C.J. Arms; charismatic business owner, part-time ex-pat, and apparent devoted family man.
One New Year’s Eve, CJ’s car veers off the road, crashing through a bridge into Jawbone Lake. The incident is assumed to be a death, despite the fact that a body is not found, and at first the crash is presumed an accident. But Rabbit, a young woman with secrets of her own who was out walking by the lake that night, was there to witness that things were not as the police presume.
Pursued by a man in a mysterious Mercedes, the things that Rabbit saw that night begin to haunt her, despite her pledges to forget the whole thing, change her appearance, and keep a low profile. But forces conspire to ensure that she can’t move on, and handsome Joe Arms, C.J.’s bereft son, has questions of his own.
Like all of Robinson’s novels, Jawbone Lake is filled with beautiful prose and vivid imagery. The valley “held the darkness like a coffin.” A train “rattled over the railway bridge, unzipping the landscape.” Characters are precisely drawn too. Rabbit’s anxiety is conveyed not simply through repeated references to fear itself but through the rituals she enacts to distract herself, “breaking her life into units of time”, making OCD-like mental arithmetic out of the most mundane of daily tasks. The relationship between Rabbit and her best friend Frankie is also tenderly portrayed, and like other friendships in Robinson’s novels, is a meditation on the power of non-blood ties between lost children.
A mile long, half a mile wide and sixty metres deep, Jawbone Lake is a flooded valley which holds the secrets of a drowned village beneath it; important not only to the search and the book’s plot, but to the symbolism of a novel that concerns itself with parallel lives and the question of how well we really know the people we love.
As if to underline this thematic preoccupation, Jawbone Lake leaves a number of questions unanswered; the book’s dramatic denouement spreading at its end like water ripples. One gets the impression Robinson wants the reader to feel some of the uncertainty and lingering questions that the characters do; those inhabitants of the valley that must live on with their doubts. As in all of Robinson’s fiction, loss and trauma are key calling cards but equally, all is never hopeless.
March 16, 2015
This has been on my tbr list for so long now I can't remember what interested me about it in the first place. Most likely it was the Peak District setting and the genre. I read a lot of crime fiction, but as I get older my habits are changing like my enjoyment of beer.
I enjoy beer, but these days on,y quality beer. Average of poor beer has become most unwelcome. The same with my crime fiction.
This is very average. There's little new or different about it. Equally it's not bad. To name a strength, it ticks over quite nicely and is a quick read. As one of its weaknesses is that it effectively finishes with 40 pages to go. Evdientally I was wrong to expect a twist in the tale.
I enjoy beer, but these days on,y quality beer. Average of poor beer has become most unwelcome. The same with my crime fiction.
This is very average. There's little new or different about it. Equally it's not bad. To name a strength, it ticks over quite nicely and is a quick read. As one of its weaknesses is that it effectively finishes with 40 pages to go. Evdientally I was wrong to expect a twist in the tale.
February 5, 2016
Maybe it's just me, but I found it impossible finish this one. It didn't really grab me like most I've read.
February 11, 2016
Written with action that is constant but does not become tedious - even mundane scenes are brought to life with the style and voice. A tantilising story with twists and interesting themes.
June 2, 2014
Excellent story well told, I shall be looking out for more from this author.
May 14, 2017
Read up to page 69 but giving it away as I find the writing flat and unengaging.
May 11, 2018
jawbone lake is more of a thriller, and less literary, than electricity, robinson's previous, but i don't think he completely succeeded with his crossover. i found the book a bit flat.
December 8, 2014
I had high hopes for this book but ultimately it disappointed.
Don't get me wrong, it had its moments but it failed to live up to the gripping thriller I expected after all that praise had been heaped on it.
For me, it had about as much tension as a deflating balloon and I failed to connect with any of the characters enough to care what happened to them.
Don't get me wrong, it had its moments but it failed to live up to the gripping thriller I expected after all that praise had been heaped on it.
For me, it had about as much tension as a deflating balloon and I failed to connect with any of the characters enough to care what happened to them.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews